


Internet Connection

by spudking



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Dorks, Dorks in Love, F/F, Fluff, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-25 14:36:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4964437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spudking/pseuds/spudking
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some people are bound to fall in love, no matter how alternative the universe gets.</p><p>Basically my prompt for Internet girlfriends got completely out of hand and has mutated into a fic of its own, so I figured I'd inflict it on you all. The first two chapters are just slightly polished versions of the original prompt pieces if you haven't read them already, the new stuff starts at chapter 3. A modern AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Status: Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [All the strange people who actually enjoy my scrawlings](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=All+the+strange+people+who+actually+enjoy+my+scrawlings).



Asami sat with the laptop in her lap and a glass of wine. Korra’s icon was still stubbornly set to offline. It was beginning to worry her. Korra usually sent two dozen messages a day, just generally stupid jokes and memes, anything that she thought might entertain Asami during a boring workday. Then, for the last week, nothing. Asami had no idea why and it wasn’t like she could just drive over and ask. That was the problem with living half a world away from the love of your life.

Trying to kill time Asami opened up Korra’s blog. That too had not been updated in days. The last post was a flashback image of Korra before the incident, sweaty, hair coming out its wolftail, fists held high in triumph. Korra’s last tournament. Korra’s last victory. She’d captioned it with just one word. “ _Remember?”_ It wasn’t exactly reassuring.

There was an electronic ping. Asami switched tabs hurriedly. Korra’s icon had changed to green.

Korra: Hey  
Asami: Seriously? You drop off the earth and you come back with “Hey”??  
Asami: ...  
Asami: Sorry. That was harsh.  
Asami: I was worried.  
Korra: It’s fine.  
Korra: I should have said something.

Asami sat back. Should have said something. So she hadn’t just been snowed in or lost power. She’d been avoiding her. The video call option was greyed out. That wasn’t normal either; they’d progressed talking rather than typing some months ago. 

Asami: What’s going on? Are you ok?

Three flashing dots appeared. Then vanished. It happened twice more, more than enough time for

Asami to flash through two dozen worst case scenarios. _She’s breaking up with you. Someone died. She got hurt. Naga ate someone. She got a stalker. Someone ate Naga. A tiger seal..._ There was a ping from the laptop.

Korra: Whatever that mad brain of yours is cooking up right now, stop.

Asami tried to. She wasn’t very successful.

Korra: Promise not to freak out?  
Asami: ...  
Asami: if there ever was a sentence likely to make me freak out, it’s that.  
Korra: Fair point.  
Korra: Can you try though?  
Asami: I will do my best. No promises.  
Korra: That’ll have to do.  
Korra: Ok.  
Korra: So.  
Korra: Um.  
Korra: Basically.  
Asami: Babe, this is going to take a really long time if you type one word a message  
Korra: Fair point.  
Korra: Sorry.  
Korra: Whoops.   
Korra: did it again.  
Asami: You did that on purpose, didn’t you?  
Korra: Maybe?  
Korra: :P  
Korra: Ok. Real talk time. Hope you’re sitting down. I am, but hey, you knew that already.

Asami rolled her eyes.

Asami: Wheelchair gags are low-hanging fruit, Kor.  
Korra: And? It’s the only kind I can reach.

Asami fought the urge to facepalm.  

Korra: It’s actually about that. This whole thing.  
Asami: Fruit?  
Korra: ...No, you plum.  
Korra: The wheelchair. Me. The combination thereof.  
Asami: Ooh that makes more sense.  
Asami: wait, shit, are you ok?  
Asami: did something happen?  
Asami: Kor?  
Korra: Asami, I’m fine. Well. Mainly. Ended up in hospital again.  
Asami: ???  
Asami: why?!  
Asami: are you still there?  
Asami: what happened?  
Korra: Asami, breathe. I’m ok. Not like I can really get much more injured, eh?  
Asami: REALLY NOT THE POINT, KORRA!  
Asami: I mean, I’m very glad to hear you’re ok.  
Asami: But still.  
Asami: Hospital?!  
Korra: Yeah. Truck skidded on ice when mum was taking me back from the gym. Mum’s got a broken arm but she’s ok. I got bashed around a bit, smacked my head pretty bad. Came round with my legs all crushed up against the front. Hurt like a bitch.  
Asami: Aw shit, babe, are you ok now??  
Asami: Wait.  
Asami: Hurt?  
Asami: I thought...  
Korra: :D  
Korra: Exactly.   
Korra: The impact dislodged it. It’s not pressing on the nerve so hard.

Asami stared at the screen. Less nerve compression meant...meant...

Asami: I’m trying not to get ahead of myself here, Kor. Less compression. More feeling?  
Korra: Yeah.  
Korra: Hurts like fuck. But I’m not really complaining.  
Korra: I’ve been stuck in pretty much every scanner known to man since.  
Korra: Hence the lack of communication.  
Asami: I’m glad you finally broke radio silence.  
Korra: Well I got some news. Wanted you to be the first to know.  
Korra: there’s a surgeon. Thinks they can remove it, now it’s shifted. Have to wait to heal from the truck :( but she’s confident.  
Asami:...  
Asami:...  
Asami:...  
Asami:...  
Asami: Holy shit

Korra: There’s just one drawback.  
Korra: Well, aside from all the usual drawbacks of letting some scalpel-jockey loose on my spinal cord.  
Korra: The surgeon isn’t exactly local.  
Asami: Oh, that sucks.  
Asami: How far?  
Asami: Fire Nation?  
Asami: Earth Kingdom??  
Asami: Shit, don’t tell me it’s the North Pole.  
Korra: Nope.  
Korra: Some weird fucking backwater I’ve never even heard of.  
Asami: Oh?  
Korra: Yeah. Republic City, or some bullshit like that.

Asami sat back, staring at her screen. The words didn’t change. Republic City. _Korra was...Korra was..._ Korra was typing again.

Korra: Hey Asami?  
Korra: We’ve been doing this long distance thing for a while now.  
Korra: Fancy finally meeting in the big, bad, three-dimensional world?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything medical in this fic is based on Dr Google and my own experience of a much milder partial limb paralysis. My peroneal nerve, if you must know. Today's publishing marks the month anniversary of getting out of my splint, and near enough the eighth month anniversary of the initial injury.
> 
>  
> 
> Unlike Korra I only have my dumb ass to blame for my injury. If anyone out there in a similar boat (or not) needs an ear to vent to, a shoulder to cry on or just someone to discuss things with my inbox is always open, both here and on tumblr where I'm also spudking.


	2. Airport

The flight had landed and Asami was going mad. She was here. Somewhere beyond security _she_ was _here_. And Asami couldn’t see her. It was pure torture, plain and simple. It shouldn’t be allowed. Asami debated trying to charm or beg her way through the gate. “ _Excuse me officer, but my internet girlfriend who I’ve never met before is getting off a plane. Can I just squeeze past?”_ It didn’t sound likely. Maybe she should have bought a ticket herself for an earlier flight and waited on the other side. Or maybe that was a _little_ desperate.

There were a lot of flights arriving, an endless stream of passengers exiting baggage claim. Asami half wished she’d got a sign or something, but Korra was pretty big on keeping out of the spotlight. Better that she didn’t.

In the end she saw Naga first. Something about a dog the size of a small bear tended to make crowds part, especially if it was wearing a service vest. And then Korra emerged from the crowd, following the path Naga had cleared for her. Asami’s breath caught. Nobody looks at their best after a twelve hour nonstop flight but Korra looked absolutely stunning, albeit in a dishabille sort of way, as she wheeled her way across arrivals. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt, exposing gorgeously defined arms, and loose soft tracksuit bottoms. Her mother was walking behind her, Tonraq pushing the luggage trolley beside his wife. Korra came to a stop just short of Asami, Naga coming immediately to heel. Or, rather, to wheel.  
“Hey.” Asami managed.  
“Seriously?” Korra grinned. “I fly halfway round the world, and you go with ‘hey’?”  
All of Asami’s nerves evaporated. Physical distance hadn’t changed anything.  
“Oh, because you’re so conversational?”  
“Well, I _was_ going to say ‘I’m so glad you’re not an internet predator’, but it seems a little forced now. And where are my manners?”  
Korra’s parents had caught up with them.  
“Given the whole ‘first time meeting in the real world thing’...Mum, Dad. This is Asami Sato. Asami, this is Senna and Tonraq.”  
Naga barked. Korra rolled her eyes.  
“ _And_ Naga.”

They exchanged greetings. Asami went for a handshake and found herself in a bearhug instead.  
“ _Daaad_ ,” Korra groaned. “Put her down, please.”  
“I can’t show some affection to my little girl’s girlfriend?” Tonraq pouted, setting Asami back down. Korra rolled her eyes.  
“Not in public, and not by cracking her ribs. Besides,” Korra’s voice dropped a little as she added sulkily. “I wanted to be the first to hug her.”

Korra had clearly inherited her father’s pout. Asami had seen it online plenty of times but it was even more adorable in person. She was only too happy to wrap her arms around Korra instead. The stooped position was awkward but Asami didn’t let go, not even when her back began to complain.  
“I can’t believe you’re really here,” She whispered, so only Korra could hear.  
“I keep pinching myself,” Korra replied, almost shyly. “Freaked out on the plane when it didn’t hurt. Then I remembered I can’t really feel my legs to start with.”  
Asami snorted.  
“You’re going to have to come up with some new material, Korra. For after the surgery.”  
“I’m working on it.”

Korra was the one to pull away, the twisted position not doing her any favours either. She settled herself a little more comfortably against the back of the chair, closing her eyes briefly.  
“Ok.” She said, her voice bright once more. “I don’t know about you guys but I think I’d like to see more of Republic City than just this airport, nice as it is.”  
“Let’s get to the hotel,” Tonraq suggested. “Drop the luggage and freshen up before we do the tourist thing.”

Asami had a car waiting. She knew better than to offer to help as Korra manoeuvred herself out of the chair and into the vehicle, her father collapsing the wheelchair and slotting it into the boot. Asami took the seat next to Korra, letting her hand fall close to Korra’s own. At the first bump in the road Korra grunted in discomfort, her hand finding Asami’s of its own volition. She seemed a little startled at the contact but not at all displeased. She didn’t let go for the entire journey.

 

Asami: So what’s the plan?  
Korra: Meet in about...  
Korra: Hour and a half?  
Korra: At the hotel?  
Asami: Sounds good.  
Asami: So what are you up to now?  
Korra: Soaking away a long flight and day. Even first class chairs fuck my back up.  
Korra: and twisting looking at stuff all day didn’t help  
Asami: :(  
Korra: not that I’m ungrateful for the upgrade! And I loved spending the day with you.  
Asami: Are you still ok for going out tonight?  
Asami: I could always just bring ice cream over?  
Korra: Tempting, but I’ll be fine.  
Korra: I’m going to be stuck in bed for a long time in the not-too distant future.  
Korra: Save the ice cream for then?  
Asami: Gladly.  
Asami: I’ll even spoonfeed you when you’re too high/lazy to do it yourself  
Asami: Could try and find a nurse outfit...? :P  
Korra: Bleh  
Korra: No offence, but if there is one thing that does _not_ do it for me  
Korra: It’s anything hospital related.  
Korra: Like “Hi, I’m the person that changes your pee bag and has to wash your greasy, bed-bound ass! Salivate over me!”  
Korra: I just don’t get it?  
Asami: ...Well that’s one fantasy utterly ruined.  
Korra: My bad :P  
Korra: Not to mention the possibility of confusing situations under heavy narcotics. Can you imagine trying to dirty talk a nurse just trying to change your dressings?  
Asami:...  
Asami: This is less hypothetical than you’d like it to be, isn’t it?  
Korra: Uh  
Korra: Maybe...?  
Korra: But I was on _lots_ of painkillers! And he was very understanding!  
Asami: He? So you thought he was a male sexy nurse, or...?  
Korra: ...I’m going to have to go with ‘or’ on this one.  
Asami: ...  
Asami: Wow.  
Asami: You really...wow.  
Korra: Yeah. Morphine is a hell of a drug.  
Asami:...If I’m at the hospital after the surgery I’m bringing a video camera  
Korra: If???? :S  
Asami: I didn’t want to presume.  
Korra: Asami, I want you there. Really.  
Korra: Even if it is just to mock me afterwards :P  
Asami: Then I’ll be there. Every step (no pun/offence intended) of the way.  
Asami: Now are you just going to taunt me by making you imagine you in the bath, or...?

There was a ping as the picture uploaded. Korra had her laptop on a tray across the centre of the bath, her hair pinned up to keep it out of the water and bubbles covering her up to the collarbones. It was an entirely decent picture. It just didn’t look like it was.

Asami: Me likey.  
Korra: Just you wait for tonight ;P


	3. Unread Message

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asami gets bad news in the worst way.

_Three years before_

_7am, Friday_

Asami: I saw the news.  
Asami: I   
Asami: I don’t know what to say  
Asami: I know that we don’t really know each other.   
Asami: But I’ve enjoyed talking with you so much this last year.   
Asami: And I just...  
Asami: I’m so sorry, Korra.   
Asami: If you need anything  
Asami: Someone to talk to  
Asami: I’m here for you.   
Asami: I don’t even know if you’ll read this.   
Asami: I mean, I imagine you have no shortage of friends and family around you right now.   
Asami: And I’m likely the bottom of the proverbial barrel.   
Asami: But I’m here all the same  
Asami: If there is anything I can do, anything at all, please just ask.

_11 pm, Sunday_

  
Asami: I hope someone shows you all the tribute pages  
Asami: [link]  
Asami: [link]  
Asami: [link]  
Asami: [link]  
Asami: Not even the tip of the iceberg.  
Asami: You’ve got so many people rooting for you.   
Asami: You’re going to get through this. I know it.   
Asami: You’re going to be ok.  
Asami: You’re a hero, you know that?   
Asami: Which means you get the girl and get to ride off into the sunset  
Asami: Fundamental law of the universe.  
Asami: You don’t want to let the universe down, do you? 

_1am, Monday_

Asami: I didn’t mean to make that sound like an accusation. I just...  
Asami: I wish I could do something.  
Asami: The news says you’re still critical.  
Asami: Life-changing injuries.  
Asami: I can’t imagine what you must be going through.  
Asami: And your family...  
Asami: The universe is a fucked up place.   
Asami: This should never have happened.   
Asami: It’s just so unfair.

_6 pm, Wednesday_

Asami: The girl was on the news today. I hope they recorded it for you.  
Asami: I hope you get to meet her.   
Asami: You’re her hero.  
Asami: In every way possible.

_11 pm, Saturday_

Asami: The match was supposed to be tonight.   
Asami: They had a tribute show instead.  
Asami: A fundraiser.  
Asami: It raised enough to build half a hospital in one night.  
Asami: That’s all you, Korra. That’s what you bring out in people.   
Asami: You make the world a better place.   
Asami: It needs more people like you.  
Asami: It needs you.   
Asami: I need you.   
 _[Error: Message Not Sent]_

_8 pm, Tuesday_

Asami: I wish I knew how you were doing.

_6 am, Thursday_

Asami: Hey Korra, why do golfers have two pairs of trousers?  
Asami: In case they get a hole in one!

_10 am, Monday_

Asami: Raiko is such a tool.   
Asami: Trying to milk what happened to you for his own ends.  
Asami: Slimy git.  
Asami: I hope every campaign poster with his great ugly mug on gets shat on by seagulls.

_4 pm, Wednesday_

Asami: Has anyone actually tried to butter the back of a cat and drop it?  
Asami: You know, for science.

_3 pm, Thursday_

Asami: The legal department have advised against looking into the mechanics and/or terminal velocity of felines and dairy products.   
Asami: Scientific progress is always held back by the small minded

_3 am, Saturday_

Asami: fUck politcansss and theyr stupid partys  
Asami: Getit?  
Asami: Parties? Like they hae parties and their in partys??  
Asami: Fuck you, im hilarious  
Asami: and Raijo’ss parities suck. On both cunts.   
Asami: leest his booze is fee

_3 pm Saturday_

Asami: my head will not stop hurting

_10 pm Monday_

Asami: Who the hell looked at the komodo rhino and said “yeah, I’m going to sit on that”?   
Asami: Who thought that could possibly end well??

_6 pm, Wednesday_

Asami:  I was so bored in the board meeting today I may have accidentally designed a jetpack  
Asami: As in I may have actually got round the ‘set your own legs on fire’ issue.   
Asami: Which is a whole new level of procrastination.  
Asami: I’ve looped all the way back round to being productive

_8 pm, Friday_

Asami: So a turtleduck waddles into a bar...

_[Incoming video call from Korra: Accept/Decline?]_

Asami stared at the calling image, sure her mind was playing tricks on her. She hit accept. The picture burst to life.

 _“Ok, sweetheart, there we go,”_  came a muffled voice from out of shot as the camera jerked around, getting blurry snippets of a hospital room before finally settling on her. On Korra.

Asami had expected her to look unwell. She hadn’t been prepared for this. It was as if any trace of vitality had been drained from her. There were dark shadows under her eyes, the harsh hospital lighting making her appear almost skeletal in the low quality image. She was still using a canula, the thin plastic tube running under her nose, and there were tubes and wires disappearing under the neck of her hospital gown. But she was there.   
“Hey, Asami,” Korra managed, her voice sounding rough and weak. It sounded like poetry.  
“Hey,” Asami echoed.

“How are you...”  
“Please,” Korra cut across her, and there was something like a shadow that passed across her wan face. “Just...” The pause was long enough for Asami to wonder if the screen had frozen. Korra finally spoke again, a faint pleading tone to her voice. “I can’t, ‘Sami. Not now.  _Please_. Can we just...can we just talk? Just us? Like this isn’t...like this is any other day?”  
“Of course.” Asami agreed at once, and Korra looked so grateful it hurt. “So. Turtleduck walks into a bar...”

The effort it took for Korra just to talk, even to listen, was painfully obvious. Asami found herself trying to slow down, to simplify her sentences to make them easier to follow without sounding like a patronising jackass as she veered from anecdote to bad joke to small scrap of news. It didn’t make much difference. She could see Korra falling asleep right in front of her and the other voice in the room could see it to.  
“ _Korra. I think it’s time to say goodnight.”_  Came the gentle but firm suggestion, all too soon for Asami’s liking. And apparently Korra’s too, going by her protesting tone.  
“Mum, I only...”  
“ _You need your rest, sweetheart. I’m sure Asami will understand._ ”  
Asami was bitterly disappointed but she did her best not to let it show.   
“Of course. It’s wonderful to hear from you. I can call back tomorrow if you like?” Asami offered, trying to make it seem casual. Korra looked slightly mollified by the offer. “Is there a good time?”  
“My timetable is rather full with lying in bed, but I’m sure I can squeeze you in.”  
“To your timetable, or your bed?” Asami joked, forgetting that Korra’s mother was in the room. Korra chuckled.  
“Sadly I think for now we’ll have to settle for my timetable. Can...Can I call you? When I wake up?”  
“Any time. Any time at all.” Asami reassured her. Korra yawned, nearly dislodging her canula. Asami knew it would be selfish to keep her any longer, no matter how much she craved to. “Get some sleep, Korra. We’ll speak in the morning.”

The laptop was moved away again. Asami watched the other figure, presumably Korra’s mother, pulling the blankets up to Korra’s chin before pressing a quick kiss to Korra’s forehead. It looked like she was already beginning to doze off. Asami could see a little more of the room from this angle. Could see the cluster of machines at the side of the bed, IVs and monitors, trailing wires and tubes.  And then the camera was moving once more. It settled this time on a figure now sat in the bedside chair, and even if Asami had not known already there was no way this woman could have been anything other than Korra’s mother. The family resemblance was striking.  
“I’ll be honest,” Asami found herself saying. “Of all the ways I had expected us to be introduced this...this wasn’t one of them.”  
Senna inclined her head in agreement. The silence stretched between them.

“Can...can I ask?” Asami said hesitantly. “I mean, if she doesn’t want me to know...” She swallowed. “I’ve seen the news reports. Are they right?”  
Senna sighed. She looked almost as tired as her daughter, who she looked over to before answering.   
“It’s hard for her to say it.” It didn’t look like Senna found it any easier. Asami just waited. And finally Senna told her.

Asami’s brain felt like it was full of white noise. Her hand clenched involuntarily over her own sternum. Her other went to her mouth.  

“Over a thousand.” Senna said, dragging Asami back to earth. Asami blinked, clearing her watery eyes.  
“I’m sorry?”  
“Over a thousand. You’ve sent her over a thousand messages since...since it happened. Commiserations and sympathy and news and jokes and just...this veritable tidal wave of communication. Like you were screaming into the abyss. And you didn’t ask for anything. You didn’t...you just offered it all up.”  
Asami waited for the judgement.  
“Miss Sato...”  
“Call me Asami, please.”  
“Asami. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t really understand this,” She waved vaguely at the laptop. “This internet...” She fumbled for the right word to describe exactly what Asami and Korra had but there wasn’t one. “... _thing_. But thank you. Thank you, so much.”  
Asami hadn’t been expecting that.   
“You made her laugh.”   
It was a simple thing but Senna made it sound like she’d found the Holy Grail.

“You actually made her laugh. After all this... you managed to make her laugh. Got her to smile. To make a joke. Asami, I haven’t seen her smile since she woke up and you just...just by answering a call, you brought that out of her.” Senna sniffed. “I might not understand how it works but you bring my daughter some comfort, some happiness in the face of all this. So thank you. Consider this my official seal of approval. I just wish it could have been given under better circumstances.”   
“So do I.”


	4. Date Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asami and Korra finally get some time to themselves

Korra drummed her fingers on her wheel rims as she waited for the lift, buzzing with nervous energy. A date. A real, face to face date. She felt almost dizzy with excitement. No, scratch that, she was dizzy because she was forgetting to breathe. Naga stopped nudging her hand as Korra took a few deep breaths. She didn’t want to imagine Asami’s reaction if they had to cancel their date because she’d passed out due to overexcitement. Asami would hold that one over her until the sun burnt out.

The lift finally arrived and Korra rolled in, stretching to hit the button for the ground floor. She cracked her neck and then her knuckles, earning herself a disapproving look from both Naga and the lift’s other occupant. Korra ignored them, focusing on the slow progress of the lift. Finally the doors opened and Korra grabbed the wheels, rolling out into the lobby, scanning around for Asami. She stopped in her tracks.  
“Oh. Oh, wow.”  
The vision in the red dress turned slowly, quite innocently giving Korra time to appreciate every angle.  
“I take it you like the dress?” Asami asked. Korra nodded mutely, mouth slightly open, looking her up and down.  Asami laughed, stooping to kiss her. “You know,” She said conspiratorially, her lips just centimetres from Korra’s ear. “You’re looking pretty fine yourself. Pictures just don’t do this justice.”  
Korra’s normally cocky grin had more than a shade of over-awed teen about it. It didn’t help that she hadn’t owned any formalwear; she’d not had much need of it recently and was doing her best in a shirt and trousers.  
“Shall we?” Asami asked. Korra pursed her lips in mock thought.  
“One second,” she said, pulling Asami back down for another kiss.

They weren’t going far. Asami had recommended the hotel for its proximity to some of her favourite parts of the city, including her favourite restaurant. The maitre d’s face lit up as he clocked her, turning on his best charm for his most valued and indeed valuable customer.

Korra looked at Asami over the top of her menu, watching her peruse her own menu in the soft candlelight.    
“ _I can see you,_ ” Asami said in a sing-song voice, not looking up. Korra blushed to the roots of her hair. Asami looked up, clearly fighting not to laugh. “Get a good ogle in?”  
“It’s not that!” Korra protested. “Well...maybe a bit that,” she conceded, “but not all that. It’s just...this is the first date, you know? Since? And I’m trying to imagine telling the me that just got out of hospital that one day this will be happening and I mean...” She gave a half shrug. “I wouldn’t have believed it. I wouldn’t have believed I’d be with someone like you _before_ I got hurt. I mean, you’re wonderful. You’re perfect. And I...I punched people for a living. You’re _you_ and I’m just _me_.”  
“You’re ‘just’ nothing, Korra.” Asami told her  
“I’m just nothing?” Korra quipped, putting a hand to her chest. “Oh, you wound me!”  
“Oh you asshole...”  Asami shook her head, amused. “You know exactly what I meant.”  
Korra grinned. “I did. But I, much as I like hearing you say it, I also enjoy screwing with you.”  
Asami waited until Korra lifted her water glass, taking a sip.  
“How would you know? We haven’t screwed yet.”  
Asami raised the menu just in time to block the spat water. “Too easy,” She chuckled as Korra wheezed. “And don’t try and spin that one, sweetie, because you’re still looking like a slapped mackerel.”

The rest of dinner thankfully went past without further disaster, more or less. Asami nearly put her elbow in her dish because Korra was laughing about something and the light had just hit her so perfectly. Korra wasn’t the only one thinking about the past, thinking about that thin, pale, shadowed face in grainy footage and hospital lighting. It could have been an entirely different person sat before Asami now, talking so animatedly she almost took out a waiter behind her and didn’t even notice, too wrapped up in catching Asami up on the foundation’s work in the past year. The courses went past all too soon, and finally even the last of the wine was gone. Korra saw the waiter waiting politely in the background, ready to offer the bill and free up the prime table they had been occupying the entire night. Asami glanced round, clocking him as well.  
“I think we may be wearing out our welcome.” Asami said.  
“And I thought there was nothing that Sato smile couldn’t get us.”  
“Oh, it has its limits. Nuclear launch codes, for one.” Asami sighed in mock regret. “Still, it seems a shame to end the night already.”  
Korra swallowed, suddenly feeling very warm.  
“It...um...it doesn’t have to.”  
Asami looked at her in polite confusion. Korra rested her chin on her hand, attempting to subtly loosen her collar. “Tonight. It, uh, it doesn’t have to be over. I’d like it not to be over.” Korra saw the slight twitch of the corner of Asami’s mouth. She flopped back in her chair. “Oh, you bastard!” She laughed. “You know exactly what I’m saying, quit teasing me!”  
“But it’s so fun!” Asami chuckled. Korra pouted and Asami reached across the table, taking her hand. “Honestly? I was having trouble finding the balls to ask you. We’d have been another bottle down at least before I got there.”

They didn’t hurry back to the hotel, enjoying the cool evening air, the clear night sky above them.

They had to wait for the lift, Korra’s fingers drumming a nervous tattoo against the handles of her chair, Naga sat patiently beside her.  
“I’ll get dad to give her a run.” Korra told Asami, who had been wondering about that. It wasn’t that she had anything against Naga; the dog was cuteness on four paws and she did wonders for Korra, but the idea of doing, well, _anything_ , with Naga’s protective and reproachful gaze on them was a little off-putting. “There’s a connecting door between the suites, so if I need her she can get back in, but I haven’t needed that for a while.”  
Asami wasn’t sure who was being reassured as they got into the lift. She put a hand on Korra’s shoulder and felt her relax. “I just...” Korra bit her lip. “I want this to be...”  
The lift stopped before Korra could articulate exactly what she wanted. She gave up, leading Asami down the hall to her room.  

The room was nothing special in itself, nice enough but impersonal.  Even Korra struggled to stamp her personality on a hotel room. Still, there were a few things Asami recognised from endless hours of video calls. The dressing gown hung over the chair. The thick blanket folded on the base of the bed, not that Korra could possibly need it in the comparative warmth of Republic City, Naga’s bed and toys in the corner. Asami excused herself as Korra wheeled over to the connecting door.

Korra removed her shoes, manoeuvred herself out of her chair and onto the bed and flopped back against the pillows with a groan. She linked her fingers behind her head and stared up at the ceiling. After what felt like an eternity Korra heard the lock click and the bathroom door open.  
“Thought you got lost,” Korra grinned, pushing herself into a sitting position. “Uh...I...wow. Um. Asami? I think you forgot something in the bathroom.”  
“You think so?” Asami asked innocently.  
Korra nodded. “Yeah,” she managed. “Like, um, your dress?”  
Asami looked down at herself.  
“Well, would you look at that?”

Korra was only too happy to look at that as Asami joined her, sitting beside her and leaning across rather than straddling her; Korra had mentioned more than once she didn’t like to be pinned. She lowered herself towards her but Korra held up a hand and Asami stopped at once.  
“Now, be honest,” Korra said seriously. “Did you do that little show all for me, _orrrrr_ did you just want to make sure you got that dress hung up properly so it wouldn’t get all creased?”  
The twitch at the corner of Asami’s mouth gave her away. Korra laughed. “I knew it!”  
“Jerk!” Asami pouted, shoving her back down onto the bed. Korra pulled her down with her and Asami caught herself on her hands, one either side of Korra’s head. Korra barely had to lift her chin to kiss her.

“You’re still laughing at me,” Asami accused after she’d pulled away. “Was the dress thing really that dorky?”  
“Oh, totally. Uber dorkish. But I’m laughing because _you’re in my bed_. We’re...” Korra’s hands moved to Asami’s waist. “This is happening. It’s like a really cheesy, awesome dream.”  
“You want me to pinch you, see if you wake up?”  
“Go for a leg.” Korra told her, with a crooked grin. “I don’t want to know if it isn’t real.”  
Asami rolled her eyes. “And you call _me_ a dork,” she said fondly, fingers skimming Korra’s jawline.

Asami’s hand moved from Korra’s jaw to rest on her collarbone, thumb just tracing across the sliver of uncovered chest. She let it rest there for a moment, pulling back so she could see Korra’s face, the question loud in the silence.  
“Try not to be too horrified,” Korra tried to joke but her voice came out all wrong.  
“I promise,” Asami told her, kissing her gently as her fingers eased the shirt open. She didn’t look, not at first. There was no rush. Besides, she was enjoying the noise Korra made as she kissed her way down her neck. Her fingertips grazed across Korra’s skin as she undid the buttons, feeling the imperfections like a topographical map of hurt; entry wound, surgical scars. Korra shrugged off the shirt awkwardly, still comfortably pinned by Asami, tossing it off the side of the bed. The bra followed. Asami paused at the hollow at the base of Korra’s throat, waiting for the little groan of impatience to give her permission to continue before moving down across her chest, down her sternum. Korra’s grip tightened as Asami’s lips brushed against the puckered knot of scarring on her abdomen, one of her hands resting against Korra’s hip, on her waistband.  
“I’m not hurting you, am I?” Asami asked, her breath warm against the soft skin of Korra’s stomach. Korra shook her head.  
“No it...it’s...it’s nice,” she managed lamely. “It’s just...there’s not enough feeling... can you not...”  
Asami’s hand slid back up onto Korra’s side.  
“ ‘No’ is enough. You don’t need a reason. Above still ok?”  
“Above is good. Above is really, _really_ good.”

Asami had had more than a few fantasies about having Korra underneath her. It wasn’t quite how she’d imagined it; there certainly hadn’t been trousers in her dreams, but hearing Korra make those little moans as her tongue circled a dark nipple was better than Asami could have possibly imagined, and it only got better as Korra’s hand slipped inside her underwear, feeling the damp heat. Asami groaned into Korra’s breast as her fingers moved against her.  
“Did I do this to you?” Korra asked teasingly, but there was a slight note of wonder in her voice.  
“You have _no_ idea.” Asami replied, canting her hips slightly to shift the pressure from Korra’s hand. “ _fuck_ ,” she breathed, and Korra grinned, moving in the slow, gentle pace Asami had been setting.  
“Asami?”  
“hmm?”  
“Just because I can’t doesn’t mean you can’t.”  
“Huh...fuck...”  
Korra’s fingers curled inside her.  
“Get up here,” she ordered, enjoying the look on Asami’s face as she beckoned again. “Get up here. And hang on to the headboard.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was probably the hardest chapter I've ever written. I'm not exactly the queen of smut at the best of times, never mind trying to be realistic taking Korra's injury into account. Hopefully I didn't do too awfully, and if I did please tell me, either here or on tumblr: http://spudking.tumblr.com/
> 
> Sorry it's been so long between updates. This is going to be a fairly sporadically updated work even compared to my other ones, and not just because of the expression on my flatemate's face when she saw the pages I had open to research this chapter.


	5. The Morning After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is having a rather more interesting morning than they wanted.

The sun was streaming through the curtains when Asami woke, still curled into Korra’s side. Korra grumbled in her sleep as Asami rolled over, the movement dragging the duvet off of Korra’s chest. Asami reached out to pull it back up again, but she couldn’t help taking a moment to appreciate the sight.   
“perv,” Korra smiled, eyes still closed. Asami rolled her eyes, not that Korra could see, and leaned up to kiss her. “morning breath...” Korra protested half-heartedly as she leaned into it. When Asami pulled away she found two sleepy blue eyes looking up at her. “You know, I could get used to this sort of alarm clock.”   
Asami pushed herself up on one elbow.  
“Me too.”

Neither of them heard the first knock at the door because Korra was teasing Asami about her frankly fantastic sex hair, not that Korra’s was any better. When the second came it too was ignored as the pair were rather more interested in picking up where they’d left off the night before. The first they knew about it was when Tonraq’s voice boomed through the suddenly open connection door,  
“Good morning sleepy-OH RAVAA!”  
There was a thud as Tonraq tried to turn away and collided with the doorframe. There was a shriek from Asami who tried to dive for the bed to cover herself only to effectively body-slam Korra into the mattress and wind her. Naga, alerted by the wheeze of pain from her mistress, nearly knocked Tonraq over in her haste to get to Korra’s side. Senna stepped round Tonraq and surveyed the scene. There was an awkward, two person-sized gibbering, raspy lump under the duvet on Korra’s bed, which Naga was anxiously clambering on top of, whining and nosing at the bedding. Tonraq was covering his face, either to block out further images or because he’d smacked his nose against the doorframe and it had started to bleed. Senna sighed.  
“I need coffee.”

Korra stuck her head out from under the duvet after Tonraq had staggered back into his room.   
“Seriously?!” She demanded, ignoring Naga’s attempts to lick her face. “Three goddamn _years_ I’ve had to wait for this, and you have to come barging in in the middle of it?!”  
“We knocked.”  
“Well knock louder! Try ringing next time, there’s a phone...” Korra indicated the phone in question, realising too late that the receiver had been knocked from its cradle by a carelessly flung bra the previous evening. Both women stared in silence at it for a moment. Korra sighed. Beneath the duvet Asami had curled into the foetal position, cheeks burning with mortification. “Mum, can you at least give us five minutes to try and scrape together a little fucking dignity, or are you going to stand there while we get dressed?”

Ten minutes later Asami was feeling no less embarrassed but at least rather less exposed in some of Korra’s clothes, Naga had relaxed, Tonraq had an icepack held to his nose, and everyone had coffee and was avoiding eye contact.   
“I don’t see why you’re so embarrassed,” Senna said matter-of-factly. “It’s not like I wasn’t having to help you dress and wash only a little while ago, it’s not like there’s anything left to be shy about.”  
“Context, mum,” Korra shot back. “Besides, me is one thing, but I doubt you’ve ever had to wash Asami...” Korra stopped. That was a whole mental minefield she didn’t want to imagine. “Just-damn it-No seeing my girlfriends naked!”  
“Girlfriends?” Asami asked, mock offended. “Got more than one?”  
Korra slumped. “This has gone from the best morning ever to the worst in record time.”  
Tonraq had to agree.

“So, now we’re past the abject humiliation portion, why exactly did you need to wake us up?”  
Tonraq lowered the icepack from his nose.   
“The hospital called.”  
Korra went tense but Tonraq held up his free hand. “It’s ok. You know how the surgeon wanted to have a chat with you? They just need to bring it forward.” He reached across, putting a hand on her shoulder. “It’s nothing to worry about. It’s just that she’s quite busy and was hoping you’d be able to come in today instead of tomorrow.”  
Korra let out a slow breath.   
“I keep waiting for them to turn around and say ‘no, it’s not happening’,” she admitted, scratching Naga behind the ears absentmindedly. “And this meeting...”  
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Senna reassured her. Korra didn’t look convinced.

Korra had been very apologetic about calling of the day’s plans but Asami could hardly blame her. Korra’s trip to the city had always been with her health in mind and Asami wasn’t childish to try and insist Korra reshuffle her priorities. That didn’t mean she wasn’t a little disappointed to have to slink out early, still wearing Korra’s clothes, carrying her dress and shoes in a bag. She really hoped nobody recognised her; the press would have a field day with this. Korra had many qualities but for some inexplicable reason she hadn’t thought to pack Asami a set of sneaking out clothes in her usual style. It was really very thoughtless, and it had left her with a pair of slightly too big trainers, a pair of tracksuit bottoms that were entirely too short, and a big old worn hoody that Korra was quite honestly never going to get back, because it was comfort in dark blue cotton, and it smelled of her. It was an odd thing to have grown so attached to; she’d been with Korra in the flesh for barely twenty four hours, but she’d spent long enough waiting for it, imaging it. The world owed her a goddamn comfy hoody.

Asami tugged the hood of the goddamn comfy hoody down a little further over her face, wondering why the hell she’d turned down the receptionist’s offer to call a taxi. Maybe it had been that knowing grin. Still, it was only about half an hour to the office. The walk would do her good.

Asami took a few hours to sort the paperwork, and authorised herself another couple of days off just in case, before her rumbling stomach reminded her that all she’d had that day was a cup of coffee. The employee canteen was certainly a possibility, if she didn’t mind answering questions about why she was here on her holiday dressed as she was. No, going out was the only option. She considered snagging a set of overalls, but that was probably even more conspicuous than the mismatched clothing she was currently wearing. Asami checked her phone. Korra still hadn’t replied and Asami would have been lying if she said she wasn’t starting to get nervous. Surely a talk shouldn’t have taken this long? Asami forced herself to put the phone in her pocket. She’d think more clearly after some food.

She was halfway down the street when the phone began to ring. She fished it out, and tried to hide her disappointment.  
“Hey, Opal, what’s up?”  
“I am having the _weirdest_ day.” Opal said, and Asami could almost hear the grin on her face. _They couldn’t have got photos up that fast, could they?_   
“There I was, stopping off for a coffee, and what did I see across the street? Someone who looks an awful lot like you. Specifically, someone who looks just like you doing a stride of pride.”  
Asami swallowed. She turned to look across the street to the cafe. Opal was waving from the window. Asami didn’t bother to wait for the invite. She hung up the phone and trudged over.

“Well.” Opal looked her up and down once they’d taken a seat towards the back of the cafe. “You look...fashionable.”  
Asami scowled.   
“Are you going to explain why you’re doing the worst dressed walk of shame I’ve had the pleasure to see since that time in uni you came back in, oh, what was it...oh yes, a pair of board shorts and a pink dressing gown?”  
Asami glared.   
“You promised to forget that.”  
“I promise to forget a lot of things that get seared in my brain.” Opal shrugged. “like, say, ill thought out valentines plans involving shoddy handcuffs. Do you know how hard it is to find a boltcutter at that time of night, I mean, seriously?”  
Asami tried to glare harder. The attempt was ruined when her phone buzzed. Korra. Finally. On chat, not text. She must have been expecting a conversation. Asami waved the phone apologetically. “I’ve to deal with this a sec,”  
Opal sighed dramatically. “Fine, I’ll get the food, you sext your lover.”  
Asami flipped Opal off as she headed for the counter.

Korra: I hate you.  
Asami: ?!  
Asami: Did something happen at the hospital? What?  
Korra: No, everything went well.  
Korra: Or it would have.  
Korra: If the surgeon hadn’t wanted to do some initial examinations of her own.   
Korra: Get the lay of the land, as it were. Lay of the spine. Or whatever.  
Asami: And?  
Asami: Wait.  
Asami: _Oh._  
Asami: I worked it out.  
Korra: Did you, now?   
Asami: ...Oops.  
Korra: ‘Oops’? Is that all?!  
Asami: Sorry?  
Korra: I HAVE NAIL MARKS DOWN MY BACK, ASAMI!  
Korra: I HAVE LOVEBITES ON...PLACES! BITE MARKS!  
Asami: You certainly weren’t complaining at the time.  
Asami: ;P  
Korra:...  
Korra: Admittedly not.  
Asami: So what’s the problem? Your surgeon got a problem with the lady-lovin’?  
Korra: ...no  
Asami: Ewww, don’t tell me they were one of those “Hurr, can I join in” types?  
Korra: No.   
Korra: Surgeon’s a she, remember? With some...common interests, shall we say?  
Asami: Well that’s a relief.   
Asami: Although...  
Asami: I might get jealous.   
Asami: Seeing as you’re going to have this woman inside you.  
Korra: ...  
Korra: SHE MADE THE SAME FUCKING JOKE!  
Asami: Are we using fucking as a verb or as an adjective here?  
Korra: BOTH! EITHER!  
Korra: adesjofsoupadskmpfgwjobeht34n’a#ipdsjogpiearjwp34hu0a  
Asami: is that you being overwhelmed or did you sit on your phone?  
Korra: ...

Asami chuckled.  
Asami: So what’s the issue with your dirty-minded surgeon, exactly? Aside from a little embarrassment?  
Korra: SHE ASKED ME A WHOLE LOAD OF QUESTIONS, ASAMI!  
Korra: ABOUT WHAT I CAN...Y’KNOW.   
Korra: Feel. In places.   
Asami: ...  
Asami: How is it you’ve got the sex drive of a frat boy on spring break but will go any lengths to avoid saying the names of things you’d cheerfully put your tongue in?  
Korra: it’s part of my charm  
Korra: So you can see why I might be uncomfortable  
Korra: Having to go through into _excruciating_ detail just what ‘sensation’ I have in my crotch  
Korra: WITH A COMPLETE FUCKING STRANGER  
Korra: WHO IS TAKING DETAILED NOTES.   
Korra: AND KEEPS ASKING _VERY_ SPECIFIC QUESTIONS.  
Asami: You know they’re just trying to get an accurate measure of the amount of feeling you have at present.  
Asami: They probably don’t want to ask as much as you don’t want to answer.  
Asami: And we can always avoid this  
Asami: I don’t _have_ to do that to your, what was it, ‘places’?  
Korra:...  
Korra: Ok, let’s not go saying anything rash now.

Asami laughed again.

Asami: If you’re feeling up to it I’ve met up with a friend. Think you can brave one (probably two) more people who will almost certainly ask inappropriate questions?  
Korra: Fuckin’ bring it. Send me the address?

When Asami looked back from writing her reply she found Opal shaking her head at her.   
“ _Disgusting_. I know that look, Asami Sato. You are _smitten_. C’mon, spill. I want all the juicy details.”  
“You’ll get them in oh,” Asami checked the phone again. “Twenty minutes. But don’t go being a dick,” she added warningly. “She’s a private person, Opal, and she really means a lot to me so I’d appreciate you not freaking her out too much.”  
Opal mimed crossing her heart. Asami didn’t believe it for a second.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, poor Korra needs a break.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra meets Asami's friends and Bolin gets to fangirl.

“So why didn’t you tell me about average height, dark and dreamy?” Opal demanded. “I mean, I knew you had some online friends but you didn’t exactly go ‘heads up, I’m totally in love with this one’?”  
Asami looked a little embarrassed.  
“I didn’t know if you’d get it, you know? The long distance thing? Besides, she’s been through hell and things were pretty hard for a while. We didn’t want any extra pressure at the start.”  
“Well that sounds boring and logical,” Opal made a face. “I was hoping it was going to be something more dramatic. Still, she make you happy?”  
Asami nodded.  
“Then I’m already a fan.”

Korra arrived just a few minutes later, Naga trotting at her side. She looked tired, but then she hadn’t had that much sleep the night before and a rather fraught morning. It wasn’t exactly surprising. Opal waited out the exchange of hugs, coughing loudly and fakely as they started getting a little too lost in the moment.  
“Oh, sorry,” Asami said, not sounding sorry at all. “Where are my manners?” she gave Opal a glare. “This is the royal pain in my butt.”  
“Call me Opal. And, just a head’s up, you seem to be _nauseatingly_ cute together but hurt her and...” Opal paused, considering. “Normally I’d threaten to break your kneecaps but that seems both inappropriate and less threatening than usual with you. Maybe an elbow?”  
“Oh for the love of...” Asami groaned, dropping her head into her hands. She really should have warned Korra about overprotective Opal mode. Korra looked more amused than offended though.  
“Seems fair enough.” She extended a hand. “I’m Korra.”  
Opal took it, and tried to squeeze. Asami peaked between her fingers as Opal’s cocky grin wavered a little. Korra was still smiling pleasantly as she applied pressure without apparent effort. Opal’s fingertips were going white.  
“Ok, ok. Point made!”

Korra released her grip. Opal massaged life back into her fingers.  
“Zero bullshit. I like it.”  
Asami gave an overdramatic sigh of relief.  
“Well I’m so glad you approve, _mum_.”  
“What’s this?” came an excited voice from the doorway. “The adoption papers came through?”  
“Oh spirits...” Asami groaned as the man barrelled towards them, wrapping them around Asami and lifting her out of the chair in a hug. “Welcome to the family! I’m your new dad!”  
“Bo, I’m older than you!” Asami protested as she was returned to her seat. “Yeesh, and I thought Opal was making a bad enough first impression. Kor, meet Thing 2.”  
“Well excuse me for being excited for you,” Bolin mock huffed, dropping into a seat next to Opal. “So.” He turned to address Korra. “What are you intentions with our Asami? And what the hell is _that?_ ” Bolin’s attention switched back to Asami, finally registering the odd wardrobe choice. “Asami,” he asked, in a slightly choked voice, “Where did you get that?”

Asami looked down at herself, trying to work out if this was another joke.  
“The hoody?”  
“Yes. Yes the hoody.” Bolin was looking way too excited over an old, faded hoody. “Do you know what that is?!”  
“...a hooded sweatshirt?”  
Opal was looking as confused as Asami was feeling.  
“Yes but,” Bolin made a noise of frustration. “Those are really, really rare. That’s a friggin _Avatar_ hoody! Right back from her first championship. They hadn’t even given her the nickname back then!”  
“Into your MMA, huh?” Korra asked, not quite looking at him. Bolin nodded eagerly.  
“I’ve done some amateur level stuff, set me up well for work, but fucking hell, she was something else! Greatest fighter I’ve ever seen, she should have been one of the all-time greats! It’s a bloody tragedy what happened to her.”  
Beneath the cover of the table Asami took Korra’s hand, lacing her fingers between hers. Bolin continued to wax lyrical but Opal caught the shift in the mood. She looked from Korra’s frozen expression to Asami’s concern, then back.  
“Oh my...Bo. Bo, stop talking. Stop talking _right now_.”  
Bolin did, looking confused. And then he took a proper look at Korra.  
“Oh holy fuck.”

Korra was painfully conscious of the eyes on her. She swallowed.  
“Not so holey these days.” She tapped her shirt over one of the scars. “Surgeons took quite some time making sure of that.”  
It was meant to be a joke but nobody laughed. Asami squeezed her hand a bit tighter. Bolin’s jaw was hanging open. Korra shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “Ok. Guys. Please, beginning to creep me out a bit here. ”  
Opal reached around and gently closed Bolin’s mouth for him. It seemed to jolt him back to his senses.  
“Sorry, sorry! I just...wow. You’re kinda my hero so I didn’t exactly expect to...” He stopped, trying to compose himself. Korra gave him a wry smile.  
“Maybe I used to be. Not exactly earned that title recently. Not really been doing much of anything, to be honest.”  
“Apart from Asami,” Opal added, without thinking, earning herself a chuckle from Korra and an eye roll from Asami.  
“Ok, you know what?” Asami bumped her shoulder against Korra’s. “I think, if we’re going to keep on this, we need a change of scenery. And something stronger to drink. Opal, you know the place. Go ahead and grab us a booth, ok?”

Asami waited for the two to stand and head for the door.  
“I am so, so sorry, I didn’t think they'd...”  
“Asami, I’m not trying to pretend it never happened. I’m over that stage. Yeah, it took me surprise, but it’s ok. Really.” Korra added, because Asami was still looking concerned. “So, let's go get afternoon drunk with your friends, yeah?”  
“Sounds good to me. One thing before we go, though,”  
Korra just about had time to look confused before Asami kissed her. There was a whoop from the doorway where Bolin and Opal were still waiting. Asami groaned.  
“You guys suck, you know that, right?”

The short walk was filled with good-natured ribbing on all sides. Their local was an older style pub, set a little back from the road. The barkeep did a double take as he clocked Asami, but he didn’t say anything as they settled at a table, Bolin getting the first round in.  
“So, what brings you up to Republic City? This one,” He jerked his head at Asami, “or...”  
“Health reasons.”  
“I thought you’d consider Republic City pretty bad for your _OW!_ ” Bolin cut off as Opal kicked him hard in the shin. Asami turned her eyes to the heavens.  
“It’s a fair point,” Korra admitted. “Last time I was here, well,” she tapped her chest again. “Something poetic in that, maybe. Anyway,” she shook herself. “I have a bit of a souvenir from that day that I’d rather not be carrying around anymore. The, uh, the second bullet.” Her fingers drummed absently against the spot on her stomach. “The one all jammed up in my spine.”

The candour was surprising to Asami. Korra didn’t like to refer to the bullet by name, not if she could help it. While she’d joke about her circumstances quite happily the means by which she’d ended up in them was not her favourite topic of discussion by...Asami shook herself. ‘By a long shot’ seemed a tad tasteless as an idiom in the circumstances.

Asami squeezed Korra’s shoulder on the way to the bar for another round, Opal following. Korra looked like she needed it; she’d already gone through it all once that morning after all. They looked back at the table as the barman got the drinks, as their significant others got into a slightly too loud discussion of MMA tournaments long past.  
“I think my boyfriend is planning on abducting your girl,” Opal observed, and Asami laughed.  
“He could try. He wouldn’t get past Naga.”  
The great white dog was sat peacefully by the side of Korra’s chair, still on duty.  
“You know what Bo’s like for all things fluffy. He’d want Naga too.” Opal lowered her voice, so those at the table couldn’t hear. “You know, Tenzin’s a family friend.”  
It wasn’t a question but Asami nodded anyway.  
“Are you...is she going to see them? While she’s in town?”  
“I don’t know,” Asami answered honestly.  
“I’m sure they’d be happy to see her.” Opal suggested, and Asami just shrugged. She didn’t know, and it wasn’t her call to make. Korra hadn’t mentioned going to see them, she knew that much for certain. Not even a hint in passing, and Asami could hardly blame Korra for her reluctance. Asami knew she wouldn’t have been tripping over herself to meet the reason she’d ended up in a wheelchair.   

Back at the table Bolin had thrown his arm around Korra’s shoulders, pulling the slightly bewildered woman towards him so he could take a photo of the pair of them. Asami got in shot just in time, spilling a little beer down Bolin’s back as she did so that he yelped and jumped as the camera went off.  
“Just watch what you do with that,” Korra warned, only half joking. “I really could do without the press getting in my face again.”  
“I’m just sending it to my brother. Pinky promise!” Bolin added, holding out the pinky in question.  Korra made it to take it and stopped.  
“Just be warned. If it leaks, you’re dead, and I feed you to Naga.”  
“Fair enough. Is there a reason you don’t...”  
“They leaked the footage of me bleeding out in a carpark,” Korra answered sharply. “They took the footage of me nearly...nearly...of that day and they put it everywhere, and all the lawyers in the world can’t undo that, and you cannot _imagine_ the amount of security they needed to put on my room to keep them out. I don’t want them anywhere near me on a normal day, and certainly not right now.”  
“...that’s a pretty convincing reason,” Bolin said meekly.  “Duly noted. No leaking. Don’t worry, my brother’s a cop, he’s not going to do anything like that. He was, um...” Bolin hesitated, sensing this might not be the best route to steer the conversation down, but it was too late to change now. “He was there. Just on the perimeter, he was a rookie, but, uh...yeah.” He trailed off in the now awkward silence.  
“And this is why I suggested alcohol,” Asami muttered under her breath. Korra gave her a look of gratitude and necked the pint.

They steered the conversation away after that, returning to the safer topics of polite small talk and teasing Asami.

Asami was slightly surprised to see it was still daylight when they finally left the bar.  
“What’s the plan?” She asked Korra.  
“I was going to go soak, my back is cramping up like anything today,” Korra shifted in the chair. “I uh, didn’t really get it supported right last night,” She admitted a little sheepishly, and Asami felt a twinge of guilt. Korra forestalled any apologies. “My back, my responsibility, ‘sami. It’s fine. Although...if you really feel that guilty about it,” She grinned. “You could always come back with me. Help me sort it out.”  
“Korra...” Asami had three different excuses lined up in her head. And then she looked at that crooked grin.

“You’re a bad influence, you know that?” Asami said sometime later. Korra gave a non-committal contended groan in response, sinking a little deeper into the water. Asami rolled her eyes, working her thumbs into the knots either side of Korra’s spine.  
“Just count your lucky stars that you’re a bad influence with divine back muscles.”

After a little while Korra turned over, and Tonraq ended up taking Naga for a walk so that he didn’t have to hear the water slosh about. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we're finally back and traumatising Tonraq a little more. Love it? Loathe it? Please let me know! I CRAVE VALIDATION. Also it makes me write faster. Honest.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra's showing off, Asami's loving it, and they're both pretending the hospital trip isn't looming over them.

Try as they both might, it was hard to ignore the inevitable. Asami showed Korra the very best of Republic City, although the trip to the Future Industries race track had been just shy of a disaster. She hadn’t realised Korra had never qualified for a driving licence prior to her injury. If Asami had known she might not have let Korra loose behind the wheel of the hand-control prototype they’d been developing. At least they knew the airbags worked now though. Still, things were going well, or as well as could be. Even Bolin and Opal, once they were a little less star struck and had managed to mentally reshuffle Korra from ‘celebrity that can be interrogated’ to ‘private individual’, were good company, but the true purpose of the visit drew closer every day. Asami could see it eating at Korra, as much as she tried to hide it. Her hand kept straying to the bullet scar on her stomach, Naga nosing at her hand and whining every time she started scratching at it.

Korra hadn’t realised she’d been doing it, hadn’t even realised Asami was awake until her hand closed around Korra’s own, stopping her mid scratch.  
“mmm...” Asami mumbled, still half asleep, pressing a kiss to Korra’s shoulder. “You’re goin’ make yourself bleed at this rate.”  
“Sorry.”  
“Don’t go apologising, it’s not like you’re doing it on purpose,” Asami yawned hugely. “Did you bring those mittens?”  
Korra didn’t even remember telling Asami about those, but it had been a spectacularly shitty few weeks and her head had been a complete fog for most of it. It wasn’t a time she’d particularly wanted to remember. She shook her head, and then gave a verbal negative because she wasn’t entirely sure Asami’s eyes were even open.   
“Too hot here,” she added, by way of explanation. Her hand moved unconsciously back towards her stomach and she caught herself, slamming her hand against the mattress in frustration. “It just...” Korra tried to find the words but she was still half asleep. “It _itches_ ,” she went with lamely, but Asami seemed to understand what she was trying to convey, going by the sympathetic squeeze of her hand. “I can’t wait to get this damn thing out, you know?”  
“I can’t imagine,” Asami said softly, “but leave it to the professionals, ok?”  
That got a sleepy chuckle out of Korra.   
“Do I have to?” She asked, in a mock-whiny voice.   
“Yup. Can’t go tearing your skin off, Kor.” Asami rolled over, wrapping one arm around Korra’s midriff so that her arm covered the entry wound, pleasantly cool against Korra’s perpetually warm skin. “You’d look like Skeletor, and I’m really not attracted to Skeletor.”  
“You’re saying you _wouldn’t_ want to jump my bones?” Korra joked. There was a moment’s silence, and then Asami hit her with a pillow.

In the next room Tonraq sighed, questioned what he’d ever done to deserve this, and put the industrial ear defenders over his ears. Senna rolled over and started to snore.

 

“I was worried you might get bored,” Senna confessed. Asami almost didn’t reply, too engrossed in the spectacle.  
“Wha...oh, no. No, I’m good. I’m...I’m really good. Thanks.”   
“So I see,” the woman said, amused. Asami probably should have been embarrassed but she had other things on her mind. Like Korra. Or, more specifically, Korra’s arms. And Korra’s back. She’d seen photos and video from Korra before the ‘incident’, as Senna delicately referred to it, or the ‘complete fucking shitshow’, as Korra called it, and Korra had always been impressive but it was so much better in person. She could see every muscle moving beneath the tight shirt, and when Korra glanced over her shoulder and winked Asami knew she’d chosen it on purpose.

Korra had wanted to burn off some nervous energy and get one last good workout in before the surgery, and Bolin had fallen over himself to offer himself up as workout buddy. Asami wasn’t quite sure how that had turned into the current chin up contest but she wasn’t complaining. Her arms were still screaming from her own efforts in the contest, not too shabby at all, even if she did say so herself, and at least she’d beaten Opal, but Bolin and Korra had outlasted her easily and were still going. Bolin was tomato red and clearly feeling the strain but Korra didn’t even look winded. When he finally dropped there were cheers from around the gym and Korra just grinned, letting go with one hand to crank out the last few single handed just to make her point. When she finally stopped she dangled from one arm, mock-beating her chest like Tarzan in a way Asami would never have thought she’d find endearing, never mind attractive, before Tonraq stepped in to lift her down from the bar to her chair in an easy, practised motion. Bolin pulled himself up from where he’d dramatically collapsed on the floor to prostrate himself at her feet, proclaiming her the indisputable master of chin ups, and looking entirely too happy to have been roundly beaten by his sporting hero.   
“I don’t want to know, do I?” asked a familiar voice. Asami turned to find Mako who, after a lifetime of Bolin’s somewhat colourful antics, couldn’t even bring himself to look surprised.

“It really does just want to slip out, doesn’t it?” Mako mused, once the introductions had been done and Korra had moved off to a different piece of equipment. “All I can think right now is ‘Hi, I accidentally trod in a puddle of your blood once, sorry about that’. And I don’t think that’s something you should say to someone. Especially not on first meetings.”  
“I think she’d appreciate you _not_ saying that,” Asami agreed, seeing the expression on Senna’s face.

 When Korra finally called it quits she could barely lift her arms, which created just a few logistical issues.  
“It’s a major downside,” she groaned, as she slowly wheeled herself over to the table in the cafe the others had withdrawn to. “It’s like every workout is leg day.”

The tentative plans they’d made went out the window some time after the fourth round of post-workout drinks. Senna and Tonraq made their excuses, slipping away after a quiet goodbye to Korra. Asami never was quite clear how they’d ended up in that slightly grungy sports bar. Or, more importantly, how they ended up meandering drunkenly through the streets at four in the morning, flouting all public intoxication and drinking laws to Mako’s acute discomfort, and barely having to persuade Korra to try and get them food by rolling herself into the drive-through and trying to convince the very confused and sleep deprived teen manning the window that wheelchairs counted as vehicles. All Asami knew that it was far, far better night than any corporate do she’d ever attended, and not just because of the company she had at the end of the night.  

 

The meeting could not have come at a worse time. Almost. Asami knew that some decisions couldn’t be made in her absence, but this was supposed to be the quiet portion of the year for the business. It had been part of the reason for Korra scheduling the operation for now. But then the shit had hit the proverbial fan and Asami was now stuck in a boardroom instead of being with Korra for her last day before going into hospital. She knew she needed to salvage the contract for the sake of the business as a whole and she needed to finish the process today to stop it spilling over, but her head and her heart just weren’t in it. The company they were working with was impossible enough at the best of times, even without this barely legal attempt to stymie proceedings from Cabbage Corp. Her assistant seemed to pick up on Asami’s lack of focus, and called a ten minute break to proceedings.

Asami flopped into her office chair, trying to massage away the headache that was forming. Lu entered, setting a cup of coffee down on the desk in its usual spot.  
“You’ve got a call on line three,” he said, apologetically, and Asami groaned.   
“Nope. Not taking it. Not happening. Just... hang up. By accident.”  
“Sorry, Miss Sato, but you made me promise not to do that when you hired me.” Lu shut the door behind him. Asami groaned again for good measure and lifted the receiver.   
“Sato.”  
“ _Well someone sounds cranky.”_  
Asami sat up in her chair.   
“Korra? What are you...”  
“ _Your assistant said you were having a shitter of a day.”_  
Asami tried to imagine those words coming out of Lu’s very proper mouth.   
“No, no he didn’t.”  
“ _Ok, it was more implied._ ”   
Well that she could believe.

“ _So what’s up?_ ”  
“You really want to hear about contract disputes, undercutting, illegal tendering and material specifications?”  
“ _Ooh, yeah. Talk nerdy to me, Sato._ ”  
Asami chuckled.   
“It’s just stuff. I’m handling it.”  
“ _Never doubted that. But you know I make a good sounding board, even when you_ haven’t _had a half bottle of whiskey. Unless you’ve replaced me as the go-to in times of jeopardy?”  
_ “I think I’m probably stuck with you. Don’t think I’ll get so lucky if I try messaging a celebrity drunk again.”  
_“And I definitely picked the right weirdo fan to respond to. But, before we go all misty-eyed in reminiscing, you want to throw things at me so I can be a polite and supportive echo chamber until you work out your game plan?”_  
Asami checked her watch. She could spare a minute. And Korra was right. That first, embarrassing, drunken call had been the impetus for the plan that had saved Future Industries after Hiroshi’s arrest.

She was fifteen minutes late back to the meeting. One of the board opened his mouth to complain, and stopped. He could see the grin, the set of her shoulders. They all knew that look. Asami took her seat at the head of the table like an empress taking her throne.   
“Alright then, ladies and gentlemen. Here’s how we’re going to sink this Cabbage Corp bullshit and still get home before rush hour.”

Asami was still flush with success when she got to the hotel that night, only to run into Tonraq and Naga in the hallway and was almost spun around on the spot.   
“Korra’s doing a thing,” he said enigmatically. “Best to leave her to it for the minute.”   
Asami hesitated, looking longingly towards the door, but went with him all the same.

It wasn’t that Asami didn’t like Tonraq. The big man had been nothing but friendly and accepting from the first day, but Asami had been hurrying back for a reason. Tonraq was not immediately forthcoming with an explanation, even as Asami tried to, politely as possibly, wheedle one out of him. Eventually she just gave up on diplomacy and outright asked him why he was less than subtly running interference. By the way his face fell he’d hoped he’d been less transparent, but Tonraq never had been one for political games and poker faces.   
“She’s doing a thing,” he explained unhelpfully, and Asami just raised an eyebrow. Tonraq sighed, hurling the tennis ball overarm, sending Naga hurtling after it like a furry white rocket. “It’s not...it’s just something she does to help get rid of the pre-surgery nerves.”  
“Something that I can’t see?”  
“Something she doesn’t want you to see,” Tonraq corrected heavily, taking the ball back from Naga and throwing it again, wincing as he nearly hit a jogger. “It’s not...she needs some space, right now. Going to have a whole horde of folk buzzing about her for the next few days and ...” The man looked acutely uncomfortable, verging on genuine physical pain. Asami just waited. The same strategy worked on Korra. “Look.” He said at last, sitting down on an empty bench, motioning for Asami to join him. “Tomorrow...it should be fine. But there’s always a chance, no matter how remote, it won’t be. And given that Korra is something of a champion of impossible odds she reckoned she’d feel better if she just...wrote some stuff down. Just in case.”  
Asami considered this.  
“You’re telling me,” she began slowly, “that Korra is up there, alone, mulling over her _possible demise_? And you...”  
Tonraq caught her arm as she stood.  
“Asami,” he said gently, “she asked for space. We’re giving it to her.”  
Reluctantly she sat back down.

“I have no idea how you’re so calm right now,” Asami admitted, and Tonrq laughed.   
“Calm? Me? I don’t think I’ve been calm since I got that phone call telling me my little girl was in hospital with two bullets in her. Look at this!” he gestured to his temples, in mock horror, “It’s made me go grey! I look _old_!”  
“You look distinguished,” Asami consoled him with a grin, and Tonraq rolled his eyes. He looked away, making a show of playing with Naga.   
“I’m glad you two found each other. Hope you know that.”  
Asami felt a lump rise in her throat.   
“Thank you, Tonraq.”  
“Anytime, kid.” Tonraq bumped his shoulder against hers. “So. When’s an old man getting some grandkids, huh?”  
Asami spluttered and Tonraq just laughed. “Sorry, that was mean.”  
“Let’s just take things one horribly stressful thing at a time, how about that?”  
“Probably for the best,” Tonraq nodded, still grinning at the look on Asami’s face. His phone buzzed and he checked it. “Oh, coast’s clear. C’mon, let’s head back.”

 Naga was scrambling through as soon as the door opened, leaving Asami and Tonraq in her wake. By the time they made it through to the adjoining room Naga had climbed up onto the bed beside Korra, lying down with her head on Korra’s stomach. Senna gave them a nod from where she was packing a few of Korra’s things into a bag, getting ready for the next day.

 It was a quiet dinner all together that evening. And when they tumbled into bed that night Korra stopped her, making a request that Asami not leave any marks for the surgeons to see that only sounded half like a joke. Asami was only too happy to comply.

Asami woke when it was still dark. She tried to work out what had woken her when she saw Korra’s eyes open in the dark, heard the scrape of nails across skin. She was staring up into nothing. One hand was on her chest, over the old wound.   
“Kor?”  
No response. No indication she’d even heard her. Asami shifted even closer, mentally beating herself up for not noticing before.  
“Korra? Sweetheart, can you hear me?”  
Korra nodded absently.  
“I need you to come back, ok? Can you feel my hand on your arm?”  
“Never left,” She said distantly.   
“Of course you didn’t.” Asami said gently, continuing to try and coax Korra out of whatever mental pitfall had snared her. It took time, but Asami knew better than to rush it, knew how to lead her back to the present. Eventually she felt confident enough to ask;  
“So, do you think I should go for the mixed or the all-female naked jelly wrestling?”  
“Whatever you feel like.” Korra blinked, finally snapping fully back to reality. “Wait, _what_!?”  
Asami couldn’t help but snort at Korra’s bewildered expression.   
“Sorry babe. But it’s nice to see you back on planet earth.”  
“I never...”  
Asami reached out and squeezed Korra’s hand, stopping the scratching at her scar.  
“...oh.”

Asami stopped the upcoming apology with a kiss.  
“Don’t. Just talk to me. I’m right here. Where’d your head go, sweetheart?”  
“Then,” Korra tried to reach for the wound again but Asami had her hand. She could feel it itching away under the shirt, under her skin. “I mean...it was so close, you know?”  
Asami wasn’t quite sure she did.

“One centimetre one way and it’d have missed my spine entirely. One centimetre the other way and...well it wouldn’t have mattered. My entire life in the hands of a few lousy millimetres. The odds of it...and now, well,” Korra looked down. “Now I’m rolling the dice all over again. And...and I’m not...” she trailed off.   
“You’re having second thoughts?” Asami guessed and Korra shook her head.  
“Eight hundredth thoughts, maybe. It could get worse, ‘Sami. _I_ could get worse.”  
Asami squeezed Korra’s captured hand.  
“I know. I know the risks. And I’d hoped that you’d realised by now, after all the shit we’ve been through, that I’m not going anywhere. No matter the outcome. Call it off, _I won't care_. We got together with you like this so don’t you insult us both by suggesting I’d walk away just because, well, because you couldn’t. I didn’t leave last spring, I sure as _hell_ aren’t leaving now. You hear me, Korra?”  
Korra nodded. Asami wrapped her arms around her, holding her close. “I know this is scary. And I wish I could help, I wish I could take all the pressure off, but this isn’t a call I can make for you. This is something you have to decide for yourself.  But Korra, I’m with you. No matter how it shakes out. Fuck your legs, Kor,"  
Korra snorted. "I mean it," Asami continued. "Fuck 'em. I’m in this for you.”   
“I think I can feel it sometimes.” Korra blurted out. Asami squeezed her hand. “Like, inside me. I can feel it. Stupid fucking piece of lead sat there, mocking me like the worst fucking present ever. I want it gone. I just...I want it gone. Fuck the rest of it, fuck all the ‘maybes’ about recovery I just...I want it gone so _bad_.”  
“Sounds like you've already made your mind up, then."  
"Kinda does, doesn't it?" Korra sighed, rolling slightly to fit better against Asami. "Ugh. I just want to stay like this for ever. That ok?"  
"You're awfully needy for a badass." Asami mock-huffed, and Korra chuckled.  
"You love it."  
"I do," Asami conceded. "Now c'mon, let's get some sleep. Big day tomorrow."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, sorry for the delay. Life happened, and I was just not in a place I could write for a bit. The good news is the next chapter is half done already so that should be up soonish, even by normal people standards.


End file.
